They're very serious about "authenticity" but much of it was invented post-WW2. It's an intentional national cultural project more than some ancient tradition.
Genuinely absurd fascist shit going on with that, like you have random bumfuck towns issuing public denouncements about how a michelin star chef broke the papal edicts by placing a single mildly smashed clove of garlic in his recipe for a tomato sauce named after bumfuck lombardy.
And in their denouncement they cite that their special tomato sauce has over 1000 years of unbroken tradition and history, and adding garlic is spitting on that.
Adding tomatoes like over half the way through those 1000 years does not count however.
Take this with a huge grain of salt, but I read that Italians only claimed pasta as a national dish because Mussolini pushed it- some kind of effort towards a national identity.
Hot take: Italian food is shit and derivative
Like yeah you can put a billion tons of garlic and cheese on anything and say its Italian
Fair but we've also been stealing from Greek, Lebanese, Vietnam food etc
People get really fucking goofy about Italian food.
Like oh, this cuisine unlike any other is based on having fresh and high quality ingredients?
Sorry, British food also gets better if you have top quality ingredients and spend endless hours making sauce or stock for them.
They're very serious about "authenticity" but much of it was invented post-WW2. It's an intentional national cultural project more than some ancient tradition.
Genuinely absurd fascist shit going on with that, like you have random bumfuck towns issuing public denouncements about how a michelin star chef broke the papal edicts by placing a single mildly smashed clove of garlic in his recipe for a tomato sauce named after bumfuck lombardy.
And in their denouncement they cite that their special tomato sauce has over 1000 years of unbroken tradition and history, and adding garlic is spitting on that.
Adding tomatoes like over half the way through those 1000 years does not count however.
Take this with a huge grain of salt, but I read that Italians only claimed pasta as a national dish because Mussolini pushed it- some kind of effort towards a national identity.
(but really though I can't believe people are shitting on bada-bing food)
Now thats a spicy meataball